GOP elite, establishment will destroy Republican Party than help Donald Trump

In November, Americans will elect either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as President. All minor party candidates as well as an upstart “conservative” alternative to Donald Trump have no prayer of victory. Any Republican or conservative who does not support the GOP nominee might as well join former liberal Connecticut Republican Congressman Chris Shays and formally endorse Hillary Clinton.

There are many groups of Republicans who are aiding and abetting Hillary Clinton. The establishment Republicans such as Bill Kristol, Mitt Romney and the Bush family are not supporting Trump. There is also a group of “Never Trump” conservatives such as commentator Glenn Beck and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse. There are also the former presidential candidates such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who signed a pledge to support the nominee, but refuse to follow through on their commitment.

Sadly, these Trump hating GOP leaders are being joined by other groups of disenchanted Republicans. Next week, a group of 70 Republicans will send an official letter requesting that the RNC stop supporting the Trump presidential campaign and focus on House and Senate races, in an effort to retain control of Congress. Among this anti-Trump GOP group is former New Hampshire Senator Gordon Humphrey and former Missouri Congressman Tom Coleman.

This follows a letter by 50 former security and diplomatic officials from Republican administrations who denounced Trump and his policies. In response, the GOP nominee said that Americans should blame such officials for making the world a “mess” and “such a dangerous place.”

There is also the “Free the Delegates” movement that is still trying to use RNC rules to replace Trump as the nominee. They are contacting RNC members in an attempt to persuade them that Trump is destined for defeat and needs to be ousted. This group failed spectacularly at the RNC Convention in Cleveland, but hopes that recent Trump controversies will spur the RNC to hold an extraordinary meeting to change nominees.

All of this is happening while a few Republicans in Congress have officially declined to support Donald Trump for President. The latest defection occurred this week when liberal Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins decided to formally reject Trump and announce she will not vote for him.

Every one of these announcements gets massive attention from the liberal news media who are working overtime to give the election to Hillary Clinton. They refuse to cover the real scandals involving the corrupt Hillary Clinton and instead focus on media created Trump controversies. So, these left wing reporters just love highlighting GOP leaders defecting from Trump. It is a sad day when so called conservatives are being used so effectively by the liberal news media to elect a woman who belongs in the Big House, not the White House.

With these defections one would think Clinton has a lock on the election, yet the latest Los Angeles Times poll has Trump just one point behind. There is also good news in the important area of fundraising as the Trump campaign raised $82 million last month, a major improvement over the month before.

Anti-Trump Republicans are obviously ignoring this information because they want Hillary to win. In this election, Trump ran against the establishment and they cannot forgive him, so they are determined to elect Hillary. For much of the GOP establishment, Hillary is a better choice because it will mean “business as usual” in Washington D.C. Trump means massive change and that is the last thing the establishment wants. He also threatens the establishment’s cozy and profitable relationships in the Beltway, their globalist policies and the international trade deals which sellout American workers.

In contrast, Democrats are too smart to have any public infighting. After Bernie Sanders lost the nomination, he retired to Vermont and bought an expensive vacation home. Inquiring minds want to know how Bernie, who never worked until the age of 40 and lives on his Senate salary, can afford three expensive homes. Nonetheless, he is relaxing in luxury and is perfectly comfortable with Hillary Clinton as the nominee, even though some of his supporters remain upset at how he was treated by the DNC.

Thus, the loser of the Democratic presidential nomination urged unity and disappeared from the spotlight, while too many of the Republicans who lost the presidential race remain in the news and continue to campaign against Donald Trump. If Trump loses, all of the oppositional Republicans will be to blame.

Never before has there been so much infighting within the GOP after a candidate has secured the nomination. Even for horrible presidential candidates like U.S. Senator John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, the party coalesced behind the nominees and there was unity.

This election is different because the nominee is not a politician, but a businessman. Trump has never run for office before and speaks his mind openly, without politically correct talking points. He also represents the often overlooked grassroots of the Republican Party. In this election, he won close to 14 million votes, more than any other GOP presidential candidate in history. In the process, he won 37 states and three times more delegates than his nearest competitor.

In reality, his critics have a problem not just with Donald Trump, but with his millions of supporters, who have had enough of the politics as usual and the cronyism of the establishment. These elitists are upset that the Republican voters had the audacity to actually nominate a candidate who was not selected for them by the establishment.

This election is example of the classic struggle between the people and the powerful. The GOP elite don’t like to lose and they’ll gladly destroy the party, if not the country, before they allow Donald Trump to be elected President of the United States.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award winning program, Ringside Politics,” airs locally at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and at 10:00 p.m. Sundays on PBS affiliate WLAE-TV, Channel 32, and from 7-11 a.m.weekdays on WGSO 990-AM & www.Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on www.JeffCrouere.com. For more information, email him at [email protected]